After consecutive home victories over Atlantic 10 foes James Madison and New Hampshire that helped it climb into a three-way tie atop the A-10 standings, the Massachusetts football team will return the road this weekend as they continue their conference slate in Williamsburg, Va. against William ‘ Mary (1-3 0-2 A-10).

The Tribe, who are hosting their first game in 2003 after forfeiting their scheduled home opener with Maine following Hurricane Isabel, pose an interesting threat to the Minutemen (4-1 3-0 A-10), as the two league rivals did not meet last year, and have not met in a game that counted towards their respective conference records since 2000.

“It’s just different,” Coach Mark Whipple said. “It’s like playing Kansas State or North Carolina State, where we just don’t know them that well. It’s not like New Hampshire or Maine where we’ve been playing them every year. We don’t know the names of the players or anything like that so it’s definitely different.

“Logistically, this trip isn’t as long as Kansas State … so you just need to have a ‘circle the wagons’-type attitude.

“We have 56 guys and they’re going to be all business.”

What is no secret to the Maroon and White, however, are the impressive exploits of highly touted All-American wide receiver Rich Musinski, who has 23 catches for 313 yards and four touchdowns on the season, three of which game in a 41-27 loss to Delaware last week. His 28 career touchdown passes are a school record, and are good for 10th on the A-10’s all-time list.

“Musinski is really a great player,” Whipple said. “Nobody’s really stopped him. If you try to put pressure on their quarterback, he has you one-on-one, and he’s beat everybody in our league. It’s a real dilemma, and he’s a great, great player.”

Overall for the game, the Walter Payton Award candidate caught nine balls for 109 yards against the Blue Hens. It was the second time this season he has topped the 100-yard plateau, and the 18th time in his career. He currently sits fourth in A-10 history with 3,593 receiving yards.

“He’s just very talented and very smart on the football field,” Whipple added. “You just hope he doesn’t get anything over the top, or they overthrow him because he’s going to be open.”

The Tribe is also receiving strong play from quarterback Lang Campbell. The reigning A-10 Offensive Player of the Week set career highs in completions (27), attempts (37) and yards (278) while tying his personal best with three touchdown passes against Delaware.

“Their quarterback is really playing well for them,” Whipple said. “He’s making the plays and they’re going to pose a challenge certainly for us defensively.”

“I think they’ll come out and do what they’ve always done and have a good mix and a balance. They’ll try to isolate Macinski, and they have three good running backs behind an offensive line that’s finally found some continuity now that they’re all healthy.”

On the defensive side of the ball, W’M is led by linebacker Travis McLaurin, who leads the team in tackles (46), as well as solo tackles (28). However, Whipple feels that the secondary, which consistently features three safeties in senior Marques Bobo, junior Craig Patterson and sophomore Jonathan Shaw, is the strength of the unit.

“Their secondary is strong,” he said. “They’ve been playing well as a group, and have really improved in what I’ve seen.

“They’re playing much better as a team as well. We saw them play a lot better in their last game than they did the one before, so the week off really helped them.”

UMass will likely look to continue to run the football on offense as it has all season long, and will benefit from the improvement of fullback-tailback Rich Demers. The UMass-Lowell transfer caught four passes for 34 yards and a score, and rushed for a season-high 55 yards on nine carries against UNH, and Whipple likes what he sees from the junior.

“He’s getting better every week, he’s felt more comfortable and he’s made big plays,” he said. “We’re going to look to get him the ball more and more as he gets more used to the offense, but I’m really happy with how he’s progressed.”

Demers’ play has allowed Whipple to take some of the onus off of two-time reigning A-10 Offensive Player of the Week Steve Baylark.

The sophomore, who is in his first year with the Minutemen, carried the ball 25 times last week as opposed to 35 in the previous week, and may see his workload cut down even further after a high ankle sprain that kept him out of at least one practice this week.

“[Baylark] will start, but he didn’t practice [Tuesday],” Whipple said. “I think everybody could see the difference in Baylark in the fourth quarter against New Hampshire. He was better than he was in the fourth quarter against James Madison because we were able to give Demers the ball and not rely on his as much.”

When the Minutemen look to throw, it will more often than not be in the direction of A-10 Offensive Player of the Week Jason Peebler, who has posted two consecutive 100-yard receiving games, including five catches for 177 yards and two touchdowns, one covering a school-record 82 yards.

“Peebler has been good for us, and he’s made plays.” Whipple said. “There’s still things he needs to pick up, but he’s stepped it up.”

Defensively, UMass may be without starting cornerback Bobby Boyer again, and his replacement, Amherst Regional product James Ihedigbo, will play with a cast over a dislocated finger.

Whipple also knows that after seeing 15 flags fly against his squad two weeks ago, and eight last week, his team cannot continue to shoot itself in the foot with penalties.

“I wasn’t happy with [the penalties] last week, and its mostly defensive penalties,” he said. “We just need to come out, play smart, keep our heads in the game and play like we’re capable of playing.”